Men's basketball selected for Coaches vs. Cancer

The Seton Hall men's basket­ball team will participate in the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY. on Nov. 22 and 23. Joining the Pirates are Michigan State, Okla­homa, and Virginia Tech.

Hosted by the Coaches vs. Cancer program, the annual event is a nationwide partnership with the American Cancer Society and the National Association of Bas­ketball Coaches.

"It's an honor and a pleasure for our program to compete in this prestigious tournament," head coach Kevin Willard said in a statement. "Basketball aside, we're proud to play a role in spreading cancer awareness and participating in fundraising ef­forts to fight the disease. On the court, we're looking forward to playing against a strong field in one of the finest venues in the na­tion."

Before heading to the Bar­clays Center for the champion­ship round in November, Seton Hall will host a pair of home games.

Joining the Pirates in the tour­nament, Michigan State ranked in the top ten in the country this past season, finishing 27-9 before los­ing to Duke in the Sweet Sixteen round of the NCAA Tournament. Oklahoma finished their 2012-13 campaign with a 20-12 overall re­cord and 11-7 record in the Big 12.

Some notable members of the Coaches vs. Cancer council include Duke University coach Mike Krzyzewski, Syracuse Uni­versity coach Jim Boeheim, and University of North Carolina coach Roy Williams.

The semifinals are set to be held on Friday, November 22 with the finals and consolation games slated for the following day. Both games will be broad­casted on truTV.

The tournament will be simi­lar to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Tip-Off Tournament. The Pirates de­feated UMKC and Norfolk State in preliminary rounds before tak­ing on Washington and URI at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncas­ville, Conn. The Hall went 3-1 in the tournament with their loss coming to Washington.

Tickets for the tournament will go on sale Saturday, April 13 at 10:00am.

David Heim can be reached at david.heim@student.shu.edu. He can also be found on Twitter @davidheim12.